Curriculum for a Spiritual Pathway Project: integrating research methodology into pastoral care training

Type

Journal Article

Author

Paul Derrickson

Author

Angelina Van Hise

Abstract

In the immediate future Chaplains will need to practice evidence
based spiritual care. To do this, they will need to be well versed in
the research literature on spirituality and health, be able to critique
it and incorporate it into their spiritual care, document their
intervention, and measure its impact. To help train Chaplains for this
reality, the Penn State Hershey Medical Center's Clinical Pastoral
Education Residency program started the Spiritual Pathway Project in
2002. This paper describes the Spiritual Pathway Project, its evolution
and contribution to the education of the next generation of Chaplains.

Publication

Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy

Volume

16

Issue

1-2

Pages

3-12

Date

2009

Journal Abbr

J Health Care Chaplain

DOI

10.1080/08854720903451030

ISSN

1528-6916

Short Title

Curriculum for a Spiritual Pathway Project

Accessed

Tue Feb 22 18:30:31 2011

Library Catalog

NCBI PubMed

Extra

PMID: 20183109

Date Added

Thu Sep 29 09:07:00 2011

Modified

Thu Sep 29 09:07:00 2011

Tags:

Chaplaincy Service, Hospital

Curriculum

Outcome Assessment (Health Care)

Pastoral Care

Pennsylvania

Program Evaluation

Research

Notes:

This article outlines the curriculum developed at Penn State Hershey
Medical Center's Clinical Pastoral Education Residency program for
training future hospital chaplains to practice evidence based spiritual
care, to complement the evidence based approaches carried out by the
rest of the medical profession.

Listening as a Symbol of Religion: A Chaplain's Response

Type

Journal Article

Author

James W. Ellor

Abstract

Chaplains offer a different perspective for this discussion as they
are at once religious professionals, but often working in secular
settings. As religious professionals they are seen as persons who
represent a particular religion and yet must be available to persons of
all faiths. In this context, chaplains do understand and define religion
because in the course of their work they also understand that some
people do not believe in religion. A chaplain's ministry is to both
believer and nonbeliever. Chaplains may have greater difficulty
incorporating spirituality into their work if they are from a religious
tradition that does not generally include this concept in their work.
Chaplains are practitioners who work directly with the dual role of
religious professional working with the tools of religion and yet often
operating in secular settings.

Notes:

This article is a response to an article by Alice Glickman critiquing
contemporary approaches to the study of religion and spirituality among
the elderly. This article makes the point that from the
perspectives of chaplains, who are religious professionals called to
work in a secular setting, the crossing of boundaries between religious
and secular is more natural than for those who approaching the problem
from other perspectives.

Religious professionals completed an online survey of their use of
health related practices currently known as complementary and
alternative medicine (CAM). They indicated how often they engaged in
these practices and how often they had used these practices when helping
other people. The majority of religious professionals used at least one
of the practices when alone and when helping other people. The most
frequently used practices were meditation and deep breathing exercises
used both when alone and when helping others. Female respondents were
more likely to use these practices on their own and when helping others
than were males, and older respondents were more likely to use multiple
CAM practices than their younger counterparts. Other Faith/Humanists
used the most CAM practices when alone and Jewish respondents used the
fewest. In general, religious professionals used fewer practices when
helping others than they used for themselves. Limitations of this study
and suggestions for future studies for examining CAM practices among
religious professionals are discussed.

Publication

Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy

Volume

16

Issue

3

Pages

172-182

Date

Jul 2010

Journal Abbr

J Health Care Chaplain

DOI

10.1080/08854726.2010.498694

ISSN

1528-6916

Accessed

Tue Jul 27 12:22:17 2010

Library Catalog

NCBI PubMed

Extra

PMID: 20658430

Date Added

Thu Sep 29 09:03:48 2011

Modified

Thu Sep 29 09:03:48 2011

Notes:

This study looks into the employment of complementary and alternative
medicine by religious professionals, both alone and when working with
patients, and finds that the majority of religious professionals do use
CAM practices, particularly meditation and deep breathing. There
is more employment of the practices by women than men, and older
professionals are more likely to use combinations of CAM practices than
younger professionals. There is also a tendency for religious
professionals to employ CAM practices for themselves more than for
helping others.

Hope beyond (redundant) hope: how chaplains work with dying patients

Type

Journal Article

Author

Steve Nolan

Abstract

Using Grounded Theory, this study examines the experience of 19
palliative care chaplains in counselling dying people. Taking a
broad-based definition of counselling, and using unstructured individual
interviews and group work, the study aimed to understand how palliative
care chaplains work with patients at the point when it has been decided
to cease active treatment, the point where they risk losing hope and
falling into despair. Analysing the data using code-based theory
building software, the author identified four organic moments in the
chaplain-patient relationship, each moment being a discernable
development in the chaplain's being-with the patient: 'evocative
presence'; 'accompanying presence'; 'comforting presence'; and 'hopeful
presence'. The author represents the four moments as a theory of
'chaplain as hopeful presence', and offers a description of the way in
which the quality of presence can facilitate patients to develop 'a
hopeful manner' in which hope is reconfigured into an attribute of
being. The author concludes (with Levinas) that chaplains and other
palliative care staff should be aware that simply being-with an other
can, in itself, be hope fostering.

Publication

Palliative Medicine

Volume

25

Issue

1

Pages

21-25

Date

Jan 2011

Journal Abbr

Palliat Med

DOI

10.1177/0269216310380297

ISSN

1477-030X

Short Title

Hope beyond (redundant) hope

Accessed

Sun Feb 13 10:32:52 2011

Library Catalog

NCBI PubMed

Extra

PMID: 21245080

Date Added

Thu Sep 29 08:57:52 2011

Modified

Thu Sep 29 08:57:52 2011

Notes:

This article analyzes the role of chaplains with dying patients who
have decided to cease seeking a medical cure for their ailment. It
identifies four moments in the work chaplains do with such patients:
evocative presence, accompanying presence, comforting presence, and
hopeful presence. The article confirms the role of presence in
chaplaincy as primary.

The contemplative counselor : a way of being

Type

Book

Author

Rolf Nolasco

Place

Minneapolis

Publisher

Fortress Press

Date

2011

ISBN

9780800696627

Date Added

Thu Sep 29 08:58:46 2011

Modified

Thu Sep 29 08:58:46 2011

Notes:

This book bridges the worlds of counseling, contemplation, and
action. It seeks to identify a pastoral mode arising from
contemplative practice that is both effective in counseling settings and
provides an avenue into social action. Less a study of counseling
than a methodology for counseling.

The use of dreams in spiritual care

Type

Journal Article

Author

Susan Stranahan

Abstract

This paper explores the use of dreams in the context of pastoral
care. Although many people dream and consider their dreams to hold some
significant spiritual meaning, spiritual care providers have been
reluctant to incorporate patients' dreams into the therapeutic
conversation. Not every dream can be considered insightful, but probing
the meaning of some dreams can enhance spiritual care practice. Hill's
Cognitive-Experimental Dream Interpretation Model is applied in the
current article as a useful framework for exploring dreams, gaining
insight about spiritual problems, and developing a therapeutic plan of
action. Bulkeley's criteria for dream interpretation were used to
furnish safeguards against inappropriate application of dream
interpretation to spiritual assessment and interventions.

Notes:

This article encourages discussion of dreams as a part of therapeutic
care of patients by pastoral care providers. Specifically, it
suggests that Hill's Cognitive-Experimental Dream Interpretation Model
is useful for practitioners to explore dreams with patients, gaining
insight about spiritual problems, and developing a course of action.

Are surveys on quality improvement of healthcare chaplaincy emotionally distressing for patients? A pilot study

Type

Journal Article

Author

Urs Winter-Pfändler

Author

Christoph Morgenthaler

Abstract

In recent years, much research work has been done in the field of
religion/spirituality and healthcare. Many chaplains are wary of doing
research because they assume it is cumbersome or potentially deleterious
to ill patients. The aim of the present pilot study is, therefore, to
find out if research on quality improvement of healthcare chaplaincy is
emotionally distressing for patients. In connection with a questionnaire
about quality improvement proceeding of healthcare chaplaincy, patients
were asked subsequently to assess whether the completion of the
questionnaire was emotionally distressing for them. A total of 91.89% of
the 37 respondents said that the completion of the questionnaire was
not or only slightly emotionally distressing for them. Furthermore,
analyses for significant differences showed no effect, except for a
significant association with the anxiety scale. Findings from this study
suggest that participants found no objective reasons not to do research
in healthcare chaplaincy.

Publication

Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy

Volume

16

Issue

3

Pages

140-148

Date

Jul 2010

Journal Abbr

J Health Care Chaplain

DOI

10.1080/08854726.2010.480829

ISSN

1528-6916

Short Title

Are surveys on quality improvement of healthcare chaplaincy emotionally distressing for patients?

Accessed

Tue Jul 27 12:22:38 2010

Library Catalog

NCBI PubMed

Extra

PMID: 20658427

Date Added

Thu Sep 29 09:03:48 2011

Modified

Thu Sep 29 09:03:48 2011

Notes:

This study aims to encourage research by healthcare chaplains into
improving healthcare chaplaincy by demonstrating the fallacy of the
common assumption that participating in such research with prove
distressing to patients.